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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23972842">Flowers/Moon/Corruption/Gloves</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marsalias/pseuds/Marsalias'>Marsalias</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Dannymay 2020 [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Danny Phantom</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Flowers, Gen, not blood blossoms</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 18:00:39</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>5,142</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23972842</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marsalias/pseuds/Marsalias</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Certain flowers grow where a ghost lost their life.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Jack Fenton/Maddie Fenton</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Dannymay 2020 [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1727281</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>77</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>844</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>A small plastic container fell off the lab table, scattering the small white seeds it had held onto the floor, where they bounced and rolled with reckless abandon. They '<em>pinged' </em>softly against the linoleum flooring as they did so.</p><p>"Oh, no, Jack," said Maddie, dropping to her knees in an effort to stop some of them from rolling away, "these are our only graveflower samples! Help me find them!" She pushed the ones in front of her into a small pile. "I think some of them rolled that way, towards the portal." She nodded her head at the closed doors.</p><p>"Right-o!" said Jack, carefully shuffling away from the table and the other labeled seed containers. He too, dropped to his knees and started crawling over the ground, looking for the seeds.</p><p>The Fentons had decided to take a look at more traditional ghost hunting- and even ghost <em>attracting- </em>methods, most of which had to do with plants or rituals of one kind or another. Jack had taken a look at some of his ancestors' writings, and, although the plant they were most interested in, blood blossoms, were sadly extinct, they had found a number of other interesting claims. The seeds that had just been scattered across the floor were said only to germinate and bloom at the grave or death site of a person or animal that had become a ghosts, and they were exceedingly rare.</p><p>Some of the records of them they had found suggested that the size and number of the flowers were correlated with the power of the power of the ghost, but Maddie was skeptical. Actually, she'd been skeptical of the plant's properties in general, until their passive scans of the graveflower seeds had detected tiny amounts of ectoplasm inside them.</p><p>They were hoping to get permission to plant them on the graves of people generally believed to have become ghosts. If they could get them to germinate and breed, it would be a good test, and a warning to surviving family members.</p><p>But they couldn't do that if all their seeds rolled under cabinets.</p><p>They consolidated the seeds they had found and counted them out. Maddie sighed. "We're missing one," she said.</p><p>"I'm sorry, Mads," said Jack.</p><p>"It's fine, dear. We still have more than enough, and I'm sure it'll turn up eventually." She frowned at the overflowing cabinets. "It's probably over there, somewhere." She shook her head. "We'll deal with it later."</p><p>.</p><p>(The seed had not rolled under the cabinets.)</p><p>.</p><p>Danny crept down the stairs to the lab in human form. He knew his parents had been looking into ghost-affecting plants, and he wanted to know which ones and if he should be worried. He also didn't want to risk being affected by something they <em>already </em>had down there. He didn't think seeds alone would do anything to him, but what if they had seedlings, cuttings, or things like that? It was best to take the precaution of staying human.</p><p>He was relieved to find that little, labeled boxes of seeds were all that he could see. He took a piece of paper from the table and started to copy down the names.</p><p>Some of them, he had encountered before. Once they had realized that the whole ghost thing wasn't going away, he, Sam, and Tucker had tested as many traditional ghost remedies as they could, including the plants sage, fennel, rowan, mullein, and rosemary. Few of them had done anything to Danny, in either form.</p><p>Danny didn't recognize all of them, however, and the ones he didn't know were the ones he was worried about. He didn't see anything labeled 'blood blossoms,' though, so he counted his blessings. He finished his list, and tucked it into his pocket before turning to the portal.</p><p>Frostbite and the other yetis were his best bet for knowledge on ghost health, and Danny didn't think he'd get another good chance to take the long trip to the Far Frozen once his parents got really invested in this project. If Frostbite didn't know, Danny would have to rely on Tucker's internet-fu and Sam's botanical knowledge.</p><p>He pressed his thumb against the DNA reader. A soft beep indicated that he'd been accepted, and the yellow-and-black striped portal doors whirred open. Behind them, the portal spiraled and swirled, subtly reaching out to Danny. Danny glanced back at the table full of seeds, and decided not to go ghost until he was safely in the Ghost Zone. He stepped through the portal.</p><p>.</p><p>(He did not notice the seed stuck to the sole of his shoe, nor did notice when it fell off as he walked through the portal tunnel.)</p><p>.</p><p>"Frostbite said that they're all harmless," Danny told his sister. "As long as I don't eat them, and it's not like Mom and Dad are going to feed us the equivalent of ghost weed. Or ghost truth serum."</p><p>"They might, actually," said Jazz, dubiously. "You know how they are, sometimes. Especially if they think we've been overshadowed. But you're sure they won't affect you, otherwise?"</p><p>"Well, Frostbite said that some of them will smell really good, but it shouldn't be a compulsion for me to go eat them or lie in them or whatever. Just a nice smell."</p><p>"If you're sure," said Jazz. "What about the ghost detecting ones?"</p><p>Danny kicked the ground to make his desk chair spin. They were having this discussion in his room. Jazz was on the bed. "Probably not going to be a problem."</p><p>"Probably?"</p><p>"It's not like they follow ghosts around like the sun. They just absorb ectoplasm in the soil. What I'd really be worried about is the one that grows on ghosts' graves, but it isn't like they're going to try and plant one in the portal, so I think I'm safe there."</p><p>.</p><p>(The seed that had fallen inside the portal began to crack open.)</p><p>.</p><p>Maddie frowned at the latest portal energy readings. Over the past week, they had been slowly, but surely, changing. It was as if there was a power drain, a slow leak, somewhere. She gazed at the portal's whirling surface. Even that looked off, the twisting pattern disrupted somehow.</p><p>"Jack," she said, "I think there's something the matter with the portal. Will you spot me while I check it out?"</p><p>"Sure thing, honey!" said Jack, putting down the grow-lamp they'd ordered for their plants and bounding over to the closet where they kept their ecto-exploration suits. He pulled hers free.</p><p>As she put on her suit, she wondered what could be causing the drain. A loose wire or tube? A ghost taking up residence in the tunnel? A bit of spectral debris? It could be anything. It might not even be something immediately visible on the surface.</p><p>Maddie shuddered at the idea of trying to fix something inside the walls while the portal was on. They couldn't just turn it off, unfortunately. They had tried that when ghosts first started coming through, but even the emergency power cutoff switch had failed to shut the portal down. The only effect was that they had lost a good deal of control over its power output, which made it much more dangerous to be around. So, they had restarted all of their containment and control procedures and had started to look into ways to <em>close </em>portals.</p><p>But it might not be an issue. There was no need to borrow trouble.</p><p>The helmet settled on the suit's neck piece with a click, and Maddie started going through her pressurization check. A small amount of ectoplasm wouldn't hurt, but she didn't want to be exposed to the amount that was free-floating in the Ghost Zone.</p><p>Besides, if there was a ghost camping out in their portal, the suit would protect her from its attacks.</p><p>Jack slid into the seat in front of the telemetry board. "Everything looks good, Mads!"</p><p>Maddie gave him two thumbs up and walked into the portal.</p><p>She was totally unprepared for what she saw.</p><p>There were <em>vines </em>curling up around the walls of the portal, meeting overhead. Roots dug into the metal plates and curled around delicate wires. Heavy, green-white buds hung between heart-shaped leaves. She realized with a jolt that she recognized them, if only from pictures.</p><p>"You okay in there, Maddie?" asked Jack over the suit intercom.</p><p>"I'm fine," said Maddie. "But I think I found where our missing graveflower seed went to."</p><p>"Huh? It's in there?"</p><p>"It grew," said Maddie. Even as she said it, she wondered how. They were only supposed to grow on a ghost's grave or death site. They had dug this tunnel themselves. No one was buried here. No one could have died here, either, this far under the earth.</p><p>At least, not recently. How far could a graveflower reach back? How far down? How far up? They had barely started their research...</p><p>"Are you sure?" asked Jack. "Can you get a sample?"</p><p>"Of course," said Maddie, removing a pair of clippers from her utility belt. She removed a branched that had curved out into the center of the portal, away from the wall.</p><p>But how were they going to get the rest out?</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"Alright," said Maddie, flipping through her notes, "alright. We have to figure out how to get the graveflower out of the portal, or-"</p><p>"Kaboom," said Jack, who was still fiddling with the simulation. "We need to keep them out of the ecto-filtrator lines at least." He paused. "Maybe we should shut it down."</p><p>"But then it could escape," said Maddie. "Or grow, or shrink, or start pulling things in. Like last time. Keeping our stabilizers on is the only way to control its characteristics."</p><p>"But it would be easier to deal with that than blowing up," said Jack. "We might not have much warning if those things damage something vital."</p><p>Maddie drummed her fingers on the table. "Maybe we should evacuate," she said. "Send the kids to sleep over with friends, call up Vlad, ask him to get people out of the blast radius."</p><p>"I don't think we're quite there, yet, Maddie," said Jack.</p><p>"No, but if we haven't solved this by the end of the day, I think we should look into it. I just don't understand how it could be growing there. It can't just be the ectoplasm!" They had almost perfectly replicated the atmosphere inside the portal in one of several small containment devices and put in graveflower seeds. They had yet to react. "This shouldn't have happened."</p><p>Except that it had. Could the portal function as a 'grave site' somehow? It was at the cusp between the world of the living and the world of the dead. But, no, that didn't make any sense. If the seeds solely grew on the residual interdimensional connection between a ghost and places associated with their death, then they should have more than enough of a connection out here, in the lab, where Jack and Maddie had made hundreds of temporary portals while testing the Fenton Bazooka. There had to be something else about graves and places of death that the portal had.</p><p>But she didn't have time to go looking for what it was, because she was trying to keep the blasted plant from blowing up the portal and leveling the entire city block. It was infuriating.</p><p>She half wanted to just wade in there with clippers, but she knew how vegetative propagation worked. If they missed anything, it might just start growing again, and, being a ghost plant, it might have other defenses. Even taking that one cutting had been something of a risk, though she hadn't quite realized it at the time.</p><p>It would have been one thing to study the graveflower in the lab, or out in a graveyard, but in the portal?</p><p>She ran her finger down her notes, the boiled-down and bullet-pointed version of the graveflower legends. That they only bloomed in moonlight, or in the presence of the ghost their growing place belonged to; that they made the ghost glow like the moon in their presence; that they grew faster in the presence of their ghost; that a fruit from them could bring a man back from death's door, for a time; that they made ghosts drowsy; that the ghost who spawned them could control them. None of it was particularly useful.</p><p>The door at the top of the stairs opened. "Hey, Mom? Dad?" Danny started walking down they stairs, footsteps feather light. Maddie didn't know how he did it. When anyone else walked on them, those stairs clanged. "You guys have been down here for a while, and I just wanted to check on you. Also, um, should we order out for dinner?"</p><p>"Er," said Jack, "have we been down here that long?"</p><p>"Yeah. All day, really." He scratched the back of his head, nervously.</p><p>"Sorry, sweetie," said Maddie. "Some problems came up that we have to take care of. Why don't you and Jazz order some pizza, okay?"</p><p>"Yeah," said Danny, looking over at her. His gaze wandered to her right, and he stepped closer. "Oh, you got one to bloom. Which one is that?"</p><p>Maddie followed his gaze. They hadn't-</p><p>But there they were. The cutting she had taken earlier now hung with open, bell-shaped blossoms. They glowed, like moonlight.</p><p>They hadn't been open before. They shouldn't be open now. There was no reason for them to bloom, except...</p><p>She turned back to Danny, slowly. The soft glow of the flowers was mirrored on his skin. He didn't appear to have noticed.</p><p>"Mom? Are you okay?" he asked, brows knitting together. "What went wrong, anyway? You were working on plants, right?"</p><p>He didn't know. He didn't-</p><p>In a daze, Maddie turned to the portal. It had to be the portal. The portal had killed Danny. They had thought he'd just gotten a little shock- They'd been so happy to see the portal working, they didn't ask questions. But that would explain <em>everything</em>. Even his falling grades! Of course, as a ghost he wouldn't be able to keep up, wouldn't be able to learn new things. Except- that didn't quite seem to be true, did it?</p><p>"Mom?" repeated Danny.</p><p>He was a ghost. A ghost, and he didn't know. He couldn't know. He was too peaceful. Too- Too Danny. The imprint Danny had left must be overriding the ghost's natural inclination to violence, keeping it repeating his daily routine.</p><p>What kind of a parent was she, that she hadn't even noticed that her own child had died?</p><p>She could see Jacke behind Danny- behind Danny's ghost. He, too, had realized. She could see it on his face.</p><p>Their son was dead.</p><p>The lab shook, all the beakers and tools rattling. A few screws worked their way out of a wall panel. Something out of sight broke with a tinkle.</p><p>Out of the portal inched a pale vine, snaking around the top of the portal, reaching towards the ceiling. The surface of the portal bubbled and roiled.</p><p>Almost as an afterthought, the alarms started going off.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"You- You planted them in the <em>p</em><em>ortal?</em>" Danny squeaked. The only one of the flowers his parents were experimenting with that could bloom in the portal were...</p><p>Graveflowers. Oh no.</p><p>He cast a wild look down at his hands. Sure enough, they glowed with a soft, white radiance. A sort of whine made its way out of the back of his throat. "I- I can explain," he said, backing away.</p><p>Maddie looked stricken. Jack looked- Danny twitched his head to track his father as he moved across the room to stand by Maddie. Every part of him vibrated under tension, ready to react to any threat. Were they going to attack him? Reject him? He should have been more cautious, he should have gotten rid of the graveflower seeds when he first saw them, he should have made Jazz come down instead, he-</p><p>The lab shook again. Jack and Maddie whirled to face the portal, and, for a split second, Danny contemplated running.</p><p>"It's destabilizing the portal," said Maddie.</p><p>That sounded bad.</p><p>"It shouldn't have grown this fast!" said Jack.</p><p>Oh, that sounded worse.</p><p>They both turned to look at Danny. He cringed, holding his hands protectively in front of his chest.</p><p>"D-Danny," said Maddie, her voice breaking on his name. "I think- I think this is happening because of your accident." Her voice grew steadier as she continued. "Between that, the ectoplasm, and the portal, it must-" she broke off. "According to my research, you should be able to control it."</p><p>After living with his parents for his entire life, Danny knew how to spot when they were being less than truthful. Maddie's voice was higher pitched than it normally was. He couldn't tell what she was trying to hide, though.</p><p>Maybe he was just paranoid.</p><p>"If they aren't stopped soon, they'll destabilize the portal," said Jack. "They portal will explode."</p><p>"It'll <em>what?</em>"</p><p>Forgive him for being on edge, but his parents had (possibly) just found out that he was a ghost, and they were talking about explosions.</p><p>"Explode," repeated Jack.</p><p>"But you should be able to control them, Dan-ny," she stumbled over his name again. "Just- tell them to go back. To shrink."</p><p>Ghost plants were weird, and ghostly abilities numerous, but Danny didn't think it would be that easy. Frostbite had mentioned something about 'communing' with the plant, but he had sort of tuned out after deciding it wasn't a threat because <em>no way </em>would his parents try to plant something <em>inside </em>the portal. <em>Except they had.</em></p><p>His thoughts swirled, chasing each other pointlessly. Finally, it latched onto the danger. The danger to himself and his family.</p><p>"Go back," said Danny at the plant, trying to sound authoritative. The vines kept creeping outward, digging into the seams between the wall panels. Danny bit his lip and then grabbed the cutting on the lab table. He held it out, feeling it, the ectoenergy in it tickling his palms. "Go back," he said, more firmly. "Let go. Get back." He took a step forward, and the ground rumbled again. "This is my place. Go back."</p><p>The vines and their hanging flowers trembled and, miraculously, began to recede, pulling back through the portal's rippling surface. Danny stepped forward, following, and watched as the huge plant wrapped around itself until it was just a shrub, lying on the torn and warped surface of the portal floor.</p><p>Danny walked to it carefully, avoiding tripping hazards. He had no desire to die here again. He picked up the plant and carried it out of the portal.</p><p>His mother had sunk to the ground. Jack was half bent over next to her. She struggled to her feet as soon as she saw Danny. She hugged him, stiffly.</p><p>"Thank goodness," she said. One of her hands found its way to Danny's wrist. "I'm so glad. This was just... a bad stroke of luck, sweetie. Just a bad stroke of luck that your accident simulated the conditions for that to bloom, that's all." She patted him on the shoulders and took the graveflower. "Well, disaster averted, so why don't you, um, order some takeout for us, okay?"</p><p>"Sure," said Danny. He glanced at Jack who looked deep in thought. "I can do that." He brushed bits of bark off of himself. If his parents were going to be in denial about the whole 'dead' thing, who was he to stop them?</p><p>He escaped as quickly as possible.</p><p>.</p><p>"Maddie," said Jack, "are you sure that's a smart thing to do? If he's- Maddie, it's a ghost, just a corrupted copy, and we have- we have no idea how far that corruption goes."</p><p>"It- He hasn't done anything yet," said Maddie, barely holding back tears.</p><p>"That we know of," said Jack, his voice was broken, too, "and now... if it didn't know before... I just don't think letting it keep playing this game is a good idea."</p><p>"I don't think he knows."</p><p>"Maddie..."</p><p>"I felt a pulse," said Maddie. "When I held his wrist, I felt a pulse. A ghost shouldn't be able to do that. A ghost should be colder. Jack, I don't think he's dead. I think- I was lying, so he wouldn't know, but what if it was the truth? What if that's what's really happening?"</p><p>"That would be really unlikely," said Jack. "But we've seen more unlikely?" His voice tilted up at the end, as if asking a question. "We'll... we'll have to monitor carefully. Keep track, see if we can confirm biological functions. Make sure- Make sure Danny doesn't hurt anyone." He frowned deeply. "It might not be what you think, though."</p><p>"I know, I know," said Maddie. "I know. But- Even if he is a ghost. Maybe- Maybe what Jazz has been saying holds water. Maybe we've been looking at things wrong. Maybe he isn't corrupt, even if he is a ghost. He might not be able to learn new things, but he could be- he could still be Danny." Maddie was aware that she was rambling.</p><p>Usually Jack was the emotional one. He was shaking, too.</p><p>"That would- God, I hope you're right, Mads."</p><p>.</p><p>They watched him.</p><p>They watched him eat. They watched him sleep. They took samples whenever they could. They caught him trying to sneak out at night several times, and each time they did, he spent the day moody and anxious.</p><p>The samples didn't seem to indicate that anything was amiss... Except, of course, that Danny was hideously ectocontaminated, to the point where it shouldn't be compatible with good health. Otherwise, they looked human. His hair and fingernails grew. His body dealt with food in a normal way. He slept as a human would, deeply and with dreams.</p><p>Maddie would have liked to take that to mean that everything was normal, that the only problem was a little ectocontamination, contamination that he had adapted to, but they caught glimpses of things beyond mere ectocontamination, now that they were paying attention. His eyes flashed green when he was angry. Small cuts and scrapes faded from his skin rapidly, sometimes in a matter of minutes. Some days he would have freckles, other days his skin would be perfectly porcelain white.</p><p>It only got worse when he thought he was alone, when he didn't know they were watching through hidden cameras. Sometimes he would do things. Ghostly things. They saw him stick his arm through a wall at one point. Another time, they saw his whole body flick invisible. Once, they caught him drift down through the ceiling, asleep, on camera.</p><p>Worse, it appeared that he was aware of what he was doing.</p><p>If he was aware that he was a ghost, that meant that he was purposefully keeping it from them. He wasn't just going through his day on autopilot.</p><p>But a ghost couldn't mimic life so perfectly, and they were certain that he wasn't possessed. They had tested him in every way they knew how, and he wasn't possessed.</p><p>Just as surely, he wasn't human. He couldn't be. So what was he?</p><p>Maddie didn't know, and it was killing her.</p><p>"We need some way of watching him while he's at school," said Maddie, drumming her fingernails on the table. "While he's not in the house. Maybe then we'll be able to- to classify his behavior." They hadn't even decided if his... ghostly characteristics had pushed his personality into malicious territory.</p><p>"A modified boo-merang, maybe?" said Jack. "Tell it to maintain a certain distance from the target, instead of hitting it, and add a camera? The mark one already keys onto Danny."</p><p>Maddie nodded and looked out across the lab, not really seeing it. They had pushed aside everything else to work on this. The only part of the plants project they were keeping up was the graveflower bush, which they had planted in a five-gallon bucket in the corner. For some reason, neither she nor Jack wanted to get rid of it.</p><p>As if detecting Maddie's thoughts, the plant trembled. The flowers began to unfurl.</p><p>"Mom? Dad? Are you down here?" her son's voice echoed down from the top of the stairs. "Is it okay if I come down?"</p><p>Jack tipped his notes over the side of the table and Maddie hastened to hide her own half of the research. "Sure, Danno!" called Jack. "Come right on down!"</p><p>Danny drifted silently down the stairs. He looked more nervous than he had since he had seen the graveflower that first time.</p><p>"Mom, Dad," he said, his fingers tying themselves into knots. "I have something to tell you. I-" He glanced at the graveflower and winced. "It's about my accident. The one with the portal. I've noticed you watching me, and I think- I need to tell you how it changed me."</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Do you guys think this is a good place to end this one, or should I do one more?</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Chapter 4</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>The for real last chapter.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"It was the portal," he started. "But-" His eyes flicked back and forth between the portal and the graveflower bush. "But I guess you probably already knew that."</p><p>"You died," said Maddie.</p><p>"No!" protested Danny, taking half a step forward. "No. Well, yes, but, I mean, I'm- I only sort of died." He took a deep breath and squared himself. "It turns out that life and death aren't as clear cut as people think. I died but... my body was <em>right there</em>, so I guess, I guess my ghost, I don't know, jump started it, and, um, fixed the whole dead thing. At least... that's what we- what I- think."</p><p>He began to hunch under his parents' intense gaze once again. They were going to say that it was impossible.</p><p>"Other people know about this?" asked Jack. "Who?"</p><p>"Sam and Tucker. Jazz. Some of the ghosts," said Danny, shrugging a little. He would have to be careful to avoid slips like that. He didn't want anyone else to get in trouble.</p><p>"You talk to the ghosts?" asked Maddie.</p><p>"Sometimes," said Danny.</p><p>"Is that why you and Jazz defend Phantom?" she asked. "Has he- has he <em>helped </em>you?" The way she said it made it sound like she was swallowing a blackberry vine.</p><p>"Um," said Danny. He fidgeted. "That- That isn't really the right question, when it comes to Phantom."</p><p>"What do you mean?" asked Jack. "Either he helped or he didn't."</p><p>"Well," said Danny. He placed his hand over his chest, over his core, fingers spread wide. "The thing is, I can sort of choose to be a ghost, sometimes. I am Phantom."</p><p>Maddie sagged slightly into Jack, who blinked several times, not saying anything.</p><p>"We'll have to run some tests," said Maddie, breathlessly.</p><p>.</p><p>Danny watched his mother pull on his gloves and braced himself. Maddie noticed.</p><p>"You don't need to be so tense," she said.</p><p>He disagreed. "Is this really necessary?" he asked. "I mean, you already checked my pulse, and I told you everything. Can't we just... leave it at that?" He tried not to glance at the ghost shield generator, poorly hidden under a sheet. Maddie and Jack both had remotes for it. In case he suddenly became violent.</p><p>Or if they decided that he was lying, after all.</p><p>"This is for your health, too," said Maddie. "It would be hard for us to treat you if you got hurt, and we didn't know how you normally are."</p><p>"I manage fine," said Danny, shifting back on the stool.</p><p>"We'd like to do better than 'manage,'" said Maddie. "We're going to take your blood pressure and heart rate, first."</p><p>The first several tests were... banal. Things that could happen in any doctor's office... although, Danny's last visit to a human doctor had been some time ago. His memories of the event were admittedly fuzzy.</p><p>Having his parents do the examination, though, latex gloves over their normal hazmat ones, that was different. That touched on so many nightmares, nightmares that had been beaten into his brain night after night, that he found himself trembling under their fingers.</p><p>"Do you feel cold?" asked Maddie, her fingers hovering over a thermometer.</p><p>"No," said Danny. She popped it into his mouth anyway.</p><p>"You <em>are </em>cold. Your temperature is almost hypothermic."</p><p>"That's normal," mumbled Danny. He crossed his arms.</p><p>"Are you sure?"</p><p>"I'm sure," said Danny.</p><p>"Alright," said Maddie.</p><p>She walked to the other side of the lab and began taking sample jars out from a cabinet. From another draw she took out a sealed, sterilized packet. Inside it, a syringe.</p><p>"Jack," she said, "could you get the cotton swabs? Then we can-"</p><p>"No!" said Danny, jumping off the stool. This was too much. "Can't you just believe me? For once? Or- Or just turn the shield on and lock me up, if you can't. I'm not an experiment!"</p><p>Maddie and Jack both froze.</p><p>"What shield?" asked Jack.</p><p>Danny pointed, incensed, his other arm wrapped protectively around himself. Jack, still wearing a confused face, walked over and pulled back the sheet. Underneath, the shield projector was half-disassembled.</p><p>Disassembled, as in, no longer functional. Danny gaped at it.</p><p>"I don't-" he said. "But- Why all the tests? Why are you doing this? All this poking and prodding?"</p><p>"We said," started Maddie. She stopped. Turned a sample jar over in her hands twice. She put it down. "We want to understand. We want to be able to tell if something is wrong. If there's anything... affecting you."</p><p>Danny watched his parents warily. "I'm still just me," he said. "Nothing is influencing me. I don't- No more tests."</p><p>"Alright," said Jack. "We don't want to do anything you aren't comfortable with, Danno."</p><p>"We- Maybe we've moved too fast," said Maddie. "We need time to settle and to- to talk about things."</p><p>Danny gave a small nod. "Can I go, now?" he asked.</p><p>"Of course," said Maddie. She sounded hurt.</p><p>Danny's heart made a complicated maneuver in his chest, but he couldn't stand to be here anymore. He walked for the stairs as quickly as he could without running, avoiding the areas of his lab that his subconscious had labeled as threatening.</p><p>He passed by the graveflower. It's flowers tilted towards him.</p><p>He did not miss his mother's shudder.</p><p>.</p><p>Maddie sank into her chair. "He really is Danny," she said. Jack simply nodded. "He must hate us."</p><p>"No," said Jack. "He doesn't hate us. He stayed. He explained things to us."</p><p>"And we took advantage of that."</p><p>"He doesn't hate us," repeated Jack. "We all just need time." He looked around the room. "Quality family time!"</p><p>Maddie gave Jack a thin smile. "Maybe." Her eyes strayed back to the graveflower, remembering how it made Danny's skin light up, how it made him look dead. A mother's worst nightmare. "Maybe. Something without ghosts."</p><p>"Without ghost <em>hunting," </em>corrected Jack.</p><p>"You're right," said Maddie. She patted his hand where it rested on her shoulder. "You're right."</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I think I might continue this one, but I'm not sure. What do you guys think?</p></blockquote></div></div>
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